


Accidental Joyful

by Sissytobitch10seconds



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Bad coping mechanisms, Birth, Bisexual Character, Bisexual Frank Zhang, Bisexual Leo Valdez, Bisexual Male Character, Camp Jupiter (Percy Jackson), Childbirth, Childhood Trauma, Drunken sex, F/M, FtM Leo Valdez, Gender Dysphoria, Gods, Greek and Roman Gods, Implied/References Self-Harm, Insecure Leo Valdez, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Character of Color, LGBTQ Themes, Love, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mpreg, Multi, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pagan Gods, Pining, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pregnancy, Pregnant Trans Character, Romance, Self-Harm, So much angst, Trans Leo Valdez, Trans Male Character, Transgender, Transgender Male Character, Trauma, Unrequited Love, Vaginal Sex, graphic birth, transgender character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:33:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22942594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sissytobitch10seconds/pseuds/Sissytobitch10seconds
Summary: Leo Valdez has never been the most open about his past or his feelings. The fact that his best friend had no idea what had happened to his mother when he was a child during a quest where that information was vital was just an example of how secretive he really was. Though, when he gets the chance of a lifetime to be with his unrequited loves, the secretiveness might just ruin his life.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Hazel Levesque/Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque/Leo Valdez/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Leo Valdez/Frank Zhang, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 84
Kudos: 137





	1. Monthly Call

**Author's Note:**

> I had the idea for this fic a little while and I've had the first six or so chapters sitting in a Google Doc for several months. I'm going to start uploading them slowly while I continue to write this so that I can try and preserve the continuity a little bit better. This may not be the best and most people will probably be very uninterested in reading it, but I love this ship a lot. I hope that you enjoy this!  
> Stay sissy and bitchy everyone! <3

The Celestial Bronze was heavy in his hand as he turned it over and over again as if testing the wait for the millionth time. He set it against the wall after a moment and ran a hand through his hair. He glanced over to the counter that had a chair on top of a box so that he could eat at something that resembled a table. He stood from where he was sitting and walked over to it, glancing down at his laptop. He noticed that he had the monthly call from the Seven coming in, just as it always did. 

He glanced at the calendar that had been taped to one of the cabinets in his kitchenette. The day was circled in red, with big black letters telling him not to forget like he did every month. He groaned, running his hands through his hair to get some of the frustration out before he rushed to the bathroom quickly. 

It didn’t take long to get through his apartment, seeing as it was about 450 square feet, which was about normal for a studio apartment. He glanced at himself, noticing the huge bags from staying up all night while working that hung from his eyes. He sighed, splashing water on his face and then toweling it off before he rushed back to the computer and accepted the call.

“-PhD,” Annabeth finished. She had dark bags under her eyes as well, though they looked a lot more out of place on her instead of on Leo since his hung on to him constantly.

“You could just not,” Percy offered, a stupidly bright grin on his face. He was sitting slightly behind her with his legs on either side of her hips and his arms around her waist.

“Oh! Hey Leo!” Piper chirped, stopping the impending fight between the other two before it even began. She and Jason were sitting next to each other in front of Jason’s computer. Leo noted to himself that their webcam gave them shittier videos than everyone else, and he should probably do something to fix that since he was the one to make their computer anyway.

“I didn’t even notice you logged on!” Hazel giggled on her side of the screen, which made Leo’s heart ache and hurt with longing. She was sitting next to Frank at their dining room table, which was well kept and so very 20’s, which was obviously Hazel’s style. She had her cinnamon colored hair tied back in a ponytail with a couple strands escaping from it and falling next to her face, framing it gorgeously. Frank had been letting his hair grow out a little bit, though it was still cut short since he was working with the Roman army until Hazel graduated and left the university. Leo remembered the long, long conversation that he had been blessed enough to have with her before he had graduated after two years with a Bachelor’s degree. (It normally took four but Leo took classes in the day and at night to graduate faster). 

She had spoken about all the things that she and Frank had decided that they were going to do together. She had talked about starting a family once they were finally settled down and everything that she said had resonated so deeply with Leo he had ended up crying for an hour afterward. He wanted nothing more than to be a part of their lives, to be with them both and feel some of the love that they held for each other. However, the gods were not kind enough to bless Leo with that kind of happiness.

He forced himself to smile and rub the back of his head sheepishly, keeping up the illusion that he had no cares in the world. “Wow, that’s a first! Normally people tell me that I should shut up when I get on conference calls!”

“Like, for work? That doesn’t seem very professional,” Percy chuckled.

“Yeah well,” he shrugged, keeping his smile. He felt a dark, endless pit forming in his stomach as well as a lump in his throat. He wanted to have someone like they all did, he wanted to be loved unlike he had been since he had killed his mother. The very thought of that night was still like a punch to the gut with a knife. He swallowed harshly, trying not to think about that night and the emotional pain that wrought through him when he did think about it. 

“So anyway,” Annabeth said, kind of irritable from being interrupted. Leo shrank back down in his chair, slouching in a way that he shouldn’t have, which caused the chair to tip off of the box and fall down onto the ground with him on it. 

“Fuck!” he screamed, rolling to sit up and holding his head that he had hit on the linoleum on the floor.

“Leo? Are you okay?” Frank asked quickly, just like the kind soul that he always had been and probably always would be. Leo held up a thumbs up sign, knowing that he couldn’t stop the tears fast enough to just pop up back on screen. 

“Shit man, where were you even sitting to fall like that?” Jason asked, laughter evident in his voice. Leo felt his heart sink with shame as he looked around at his shabby surroundings. They all had better housing than him despite living in the dorms still. He sighed, getting up off the floor and making sure his back was turned. He wiped the tears off of his face and put the chair back on the box before he got back up.

“Sorry guys, just being a bit of a clutz, I guess,” he laughed, forcing the joy out of him like he was forcing a broken machine to work better than it would even if it was repaired.

“Are you sure you’re okay? It could be really bad if you have a concussion,” Hazel said, her voice the only one other than Frank’s that had actually seemed to carry some real caring.

“Naw, I’m fine. Senior mechanic where I work hit me harder when I showed up late on Monday,” he replied. Which was true, since the senior mechanic at his new shop disliked that he was far more skilled as a demigod than the mortal man could ever hope to be.

“I thought you  _ were _ the senior mechanic at your shop,” Piper replied, her eyes narrowing like they always did when she got suspicious.

“Oh, I was. I moved,” he replied, like it was the most normal thing in the world, which it was for him. Since he had left the university four years ago, he had lived in over six places. Every time that he got officially settled in one place he felt like he had had to move, so he did. He guessed that it was some sort of habit that he had built up from being on the run from his family so often as a kid. Just thinking about it made his dysphoria flare and he hunched his shoulders despite his chest being completely flat thanks to a binder that he wore an uncomfortable amount of time.

“Again?” Annabeth said, worry now in her voice as well.

_ Fuck, now you’ve done it Valdez _ , Leo thought to himself, already mentalling beating himself up.

“Yeah, I just thought it was time. No big deal! You were saying Annabeth?” he quickly diverted, bringing back some of the memories from when he had done that while they were on the quest. Images and emotions flashed through his head, reminding him what it had been like to die. He felt his breath catch in his throat and his hand immediately flew to the front of his chest where he began to pick at the fabric of his shirt.

The blond looked over him with a frown before she turned back to what she had been talking about. From what words were actually sticking to the Latino’s brain, he could tell that she was ranting about some idiot professor that didn’t know the subject he was teaching at all. He listened to the entire conversation, too busy panicking internally to chip in at any point.

“Alright, Percy should get Annabeth to bed,” Piper said after a bit, snapping Leo back to reality and out of the suffocating feeling of his body being crushed into nothingness while the world grew dark, quiet, and cold.

“See you guys! Be safe!” Hazel chirped, waving her hand. They were all so busy with their school that they barely saw each other outside of the monthly calls.

Leo remembered to wolf-whistle just in time for them to hear it and all roll their eyes. Annabeth and Percy left the call, leaving the rest of them still present. “Pipes and I actually have a lot of homework too,” Jason piped up as soon as the other couple had left.

“You should get up on that. I know you guys have some of my old professors and they get kind of cross when you don’t turn your assignments in on time,” Hazel chuckled.

Piper nodded in agreement. They had a small conversation about the types of homework, with Hazel laughing along in agreement when the other couple expressed their annoyance. Leo stayed silent throughout the conversation, despite knowing the professor that they were talking about and having his own opinions he could have shared. He didn’t want to be annoying after this call had gone so well so far.

Knowing that everything had sort of gone back to normal and they seemed to have forgotten made him both feel better and worse. He felt better knowing that he hadn’t caused them any more worry on their already stress-filled lives but he felt worse knowing that they had forgotten about his possible injury and moved already.

He was so stuck in his own musings about his friends and his own sadness that he barely noticed Piper and Jason leaving the meeting, leaving him alone with Hazel and Frank.

“Are you really okay, Leo? You can tell us, you know,” she said, her smile melting his heart and causing his worries to slip away for a moment.

“Yeah, I am,” he nodded, smiling back at her. It felt weird to give a genuine smile since he was so used to faking them so that everyone would think that he was happy.

“Where did you move?” Frank asked, shifting around so that the computer was at a bit of a different angle. He sounded genuinely interested, something that both confused and scared Leo. He had always thought that the older boy hated him for making moves on his girl, despite the Latino being in love with both of them.

“Just some town in Oklahoma. It’s as close as I could get to Texas without risking running into one of my  _ primos _ ,” he blew a breath out of his mouth, allowing his facade to drop just a bit in front of the two people that he was utterly in love with. 

“Your cousins?” Frank asked, raising a brow. “Why the aversion to your family? I would love to get to see someone from my family again. N-not really,” he quickly back-tracked, glancing over to Hazel. Even after all of these years of being together and knowing each other better than anyone else, Frank still didn’t know how to filter himself.

“They weren’t really the nicest to me the last time I saw them. But you don’t want to hear about my family drama. How is the Legion doing?” Leo asked, trying to steer as far away from his own issues as he could. He had no idea how any of the Seven would react if they found out about him being trans. He knew that traditionally, the Greeks were very accepting of LGBT people, but that didn’t mean that the Seven would carry that philosophy with them. And Leo couldn’t risk losing the closest thing that he would ever have to a family since his mom.

He smiled a small bit, listening to Hazel and Frank talk about how things were going at the military camp. They seemed to really want to talk to him, which made his heart flutter madly in his chest before he squashed the hope that caused it. There was no way in all of the Underworld that the two people in front of him, who were so in love with each other, would ever feel the need to add him to their already perfect relationship.

Leo yawned and glanced over at the clock. “Hey guys, I should probably get to sleep if I want to function at work and not chop my fingers off. It was great talking with you and I’ll see you next week! Valdez, out!” he grinned like he normally did, ending the call. 

Once he had finished he got out of the chair and took his laptop to the bed. He shed off his shirt and took off his binder, which was the only time he did so. He was terrified that if he was seen without his packer and binder that he would be mistaken for  _ Lea _ and not  _ Leo _ , which was who he was. He put on the only pair of pajamas that he owned, which had laid on the floor next to his bed in a crumpled heap. He hadn’t showered in two days, but he was always so tired from work that he never had the energy. He found that the longer he lived by himself, the less energy he had to do anything.

He turned on the music that he needed to fall asleep and pulled the only blanket he had on top of him so that he would be able to get to sleep. With being able to control fire came with the ability to not ever really get cold, so he really only slept with blankets for comfort. He closed his eyes, making sure to focus on the music emanating from the speakers on his laptop and not with the darkness that reminded him too much of his last moments before he had stopped Gaea.


	2. Invitations and Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the sudden lack of uploads! I had some technical issues and wasn't able to upload for a little bit but things should return back to normal now! I hope you're all staying safe and healthy in this hard time!
> 
> Stay sissy and bitchy everyone! <3

Leo came home after a long, long day. His muscles felt like they were going to break off of his bones and fall to the floor in a mess. He dropped his backpack at the front door next to where he kicked off his shoes. He took off his grease-stained shirt and trudged through his home to his bed. He flopped down onto the mattress on the ground, rolling over for a moment and grabbing his laptop. He flipped it open, barely being able to keep his eyes open as he scanned over the emails that he got. A lot of them were spam, mostly from sites like Pandora or National Geographic. 

While he scanned through the plethora of unimportant emails, he caught sight of one that looked more interesting and was sent from a real person. He clicked on it, blinking a few times to try and keep his dyslexia under control after such a long day. He glanced over the email, catching Hazel’s name and going back to reread it in more depth so he could actually understand what it said. 

When he had finished reading the email he sat back, staring at the wall in front of him. He had been invited to attend the graduation of the woman that he was in love with. That meant that he would finally be in the same place as the two of them since his own graduation- which he had actually failed to attend. He glanced over to the box that he kept his clothes in seeing as he only had enough to fill a suitcase and hadn’t really unpacked anything since he was just going to move in another six months to a year. 

He tore his attention away from the fact that he didn’t think he had anything nice enough to wear to a graduation back to the email when he remembered that it said RSVP. He quickly typed out a cheery and up-beat reply saying that he would be there. He blew a breath out of his mouth and picked up his computer from where it had been sitting in front of him on his bed. He got up from the blanket cocoon that he had wrapped himself in and walked into the kitchenette.

He ripped the calendar off of the cabinet where it had been taped, not caring about the cheap paint that came off with the tape. He looked over the dates that he had written things on, comparing them to the date on the email. He had work that day but it was a month away and he should be able to get the time off before then. He was sure that the senior mechanic would be glad to get rid of him for at least a day.

“What are you getting yourself into, Leo?” he asked, scrubbing his calloused hands over his face. He had a bit of stubble on his face now that he was making enough to take T again, which excited him to no end. He hadn’t been on it long enough for his cycles to stop, but he already felt like he was more of an official man now. 

When he pulled his hands back from his face he sighed, glancing around his tiny apartment for a moment. Just then, the lights flickered a couple times before the darkness stayed. “God fucking dammit!” he swore, slamming his laptop shut so hard that it would have broken if he hadn’t made it himself. “Stupid, cheap ass apartment! Why couldn’t I have just stayed in New Rome!” he screamed, kicking the dishwasher underneath the small cabinet space in the kitchenette. He sunk down to the ground, fighting back tears that threatened to fall down his face.

The apartment building that he lived in had surprisingly cheap rent for being as clean as it was. The apartments were tiny and had cement on the floor outside of the kitchenette and bathroom, which both had tile. The entire apartment was painted an odd shade of green, both inside and out which made it look incredibly ugly. Leo had only decided to live here because it didn’t have rats and cockroaches everywhere like the last place he had lived in Florida. However, despite being better than some of the other places he had lived, it wasn’t the best about remembering to take the money from the residents and keep the power companies supplying power to the apartments. 

Leo lit his hand on fire, extending it in front of him and looking around. There was nothing abnormal about what was happening but it was the third time this week that the power had gone off. “There goes working until I pass out,” he huffed, pursing his lips as he stood up. He walked to the bathroom, using his other hand to turn on the water and let it heat up which took forever since the water heater was in the basement and he was close to the top of the building. 

He gathered his pajamas and walked back into the bathroom where he shed off his work clothes. He had extinguished the fire for a moment since apparently clothing only didn’t light on fire when he was wearing it and the moment it was off and touched his flame it would turn to ash. He carefully placed his packer on top of the pile of clothing so that it wouldn’t get damaged since it was one of the only reasons that he passed. He took off his binder, letting out a small whimper as his already bruised ribs were brushed against. He lit his hand on fire once more, holding it close to his chest as he moved to look at himself in the mirror above the sink. 

There were dark purple and black bruises underneath his breasts and all the way around his ribcage, only stopping when it got to his back. He winced, trying to fight back the dysphoria that came with looking at himself when he wasn’t wearing his binder or a shirt. He extinguished his hand, allowing himself to sink back into darkness.

He could feel the kind of sick, nauseous feeling gurgling in his stomach unlike it had since he had started T and had begun saving up for the plethora of surgeries that he needed to fully transition. He sat down on the toilet, biting back a gag that was trying to force its way from the back of his throat. He became hyper aware of his oversized chest and his lack of flesh in his nether regions. 

“Gods, I’m disgusted,” he gagged, looking down at himself with a disdainful sneer that he remembered his cousins giving him the last time that he had run into them. 

“Shower, Leo. Shower,” he reminded himself as he stood up and went to stand underneath the pelting water coming from the shower head. He just stood there, allowing the water to pour down on him until he was completely drenched. He shivered, the water covering him quite a bit colder than his naturally high body temperature as a fire wielder. 

He grabbed the bottle of three in one that he bought last Saturday and covered his hands in it. He attacked his hair with it first, which was always a challenge seeing as his curls had only gotten tighter the older he got and became more and more unruly as they did so. He then used the rest of it to wash his body, something that he hated to do. He squeezed his eyes closed as tightly as he could while he lathered the parts of his body that he hated most in soap. He then turned around, washing everything off of him before he stepped out of the shower and grabbed the only towel that he had. He rubbed it over his skin, removing the still cold water before he shook like a dog and heated his skin up enough to make the remaining water steam. 

He grabbed his pajamas, throwing them on and grabbing his packer and binder. He tucked them into the box that contained his clothes, leaving his shirt and pants in the bathroom to be picked up later. He opened his laptop, glancing over all of his emails once again before he closed it and wrapped his thin blanket around him.

He had thought that the email he had gotten from Hazel had been bad enough, since her graduation meant that she and Frank were going to get married and there was even less of an already minuscule chance of them liking him the way he liked them. However, he wasn’t expecting the first demigod dream he had gotten in a long time to be quite so enraging and terrifying at the same time.

* * *

When Leo woke up inside of the dreamscape, he was surrounded by towering marble columns. They formed a perfect circle around him, planted into the ground on a perfectly circular base made out of the same pristine marble. He looked up, expecting to see marble but he was met by a glass dome that showed off the gorgeous night sky coated in shining stars. 

He nearly jumped out of his skin as a high-pitched scream rang through the air. He whirled around, his hand immediately dipping down into his tool belt despite it being a dream. He was met by three figures that he both recognized and didn’t at the same time.

One of them was a gorgeous woman whose looks seemed to change and morph between two different people. She looked both like his mother and Hazel, making his heart squeeze softly as he realized who she was. She was Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, which meant that Leo’s standards of beauty were of two women both of which he would never get. She had a male figure standing on either side of her, one of which was his father, Hephaestus, who he was able to recognize immediately. The other was a huge man with sunglasses. He was coated in weapons, giving away who he was after a moment of looking at him.

“What did I do now?” he asked with a sigh. He ran one of his hands through his curly hair, pursing his lips a bit with the exasperation that he was feeling.

“This time, you haven’t done anything, kid,” Hephaestus said as he walked up the steps after the other two gods.

“Then why am I here?” he asked, nervously plucking at the front of his shirt. He glanced down, seeing that his chest was completely flat like he had always wanted it to be. He almost opened his mouth to ask why before he just chalked it up to him being inside of a dream.

“Because we’ve come up with a wonderful bargain!” Aphrodite squealed, grinning and clapping her hands together.

“Only for you, hot stuff,” Ares smirked, wrapping an arm around her waist and dragging her closer to him. He pressed a kiss to her cheek, making the other god frown deeply while she just giggled.

“What. The. Actual. Fuck?” he asked, glancing around between the three of them nervously. “I don’t want to be part of anything like that anymore. That’s why I didn’t stay as a senior counselor at Camp Half Blood and why I didn’t stick around in New Rome. I’m sick of quests and prophecies and being the seventh wheel.”

“You won’t be the seventh wheel anymore,” Aphrodite said, gliding away from the two gods and gently cupping his face in her hands. He melted into the touch, looking up into the gorgeous eyes of his mother before they melted into that of his crush. “We can’t tell you what’s really happening, but you should move into an apartment that actually has separate rooms. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to afford it and so much more. Good things will be coming for you.”

“Are you going to make me fall in love with some rich asshole? Because I like the people I have a crush on already, thank you very much,” he grumbled, stepping back and away from her so that he was on the other side of the marble gazebo.

“Oh, don’t worry your little head, we have this all under control!” she chirped.

“Trust me kid, this will all work out. You just have to grin and bear the parts that don’t click quite right,” Hephaestus said, which was the same thing that his mother had told him when he complained about long hair and dresses. 

“Fuck you guys. I’m so done with gods coming down and screwing with my life! If you wanted to help me then you could make me a fucking man!” he growled, not caring that they could probably wipe all of his existence off of the face of the earth with a glance if they wanted to. 

“To talk back to gods like that you’re already a man, kid,” Ares gruffed, folding his arms over his chest.

“Not where it counts!” he snapped in reply.

“Hun, please. We will help you. Things will get better,” Aphrodite said, sounding too much like an actual mother and not a teenage girl with the body of a supermodel. “Take care of yourself, get a better apartment. Then, you’ll get something amazing!” she squealed, whirling around in a circle.

Leo just nodded slowly, taking another step back from her. “Got it. New apartment. Needed one anyway. Guess it’s time to move again.”

“Try California, this time,” Hephaestus said, a small, pining smile resting on his face as he watched Aphrodite. Leo couldn’t help but sympathize with him. His father was also pining after a woman that he would never be able to be together with. “Somewhere near New Rome.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> I would love to hear what you guys thought of this and if there's anything specific that you want to see me write!  
> Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3


	3. Graduations and Old Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that this work seemed like it was abandoned for a while, but starting next week I'm going to be uploading a chapter every Saturday! I totally forgot to do this yesterday, which is why my upload schedule will be starting consistently next week. There's also been enough time between this and the last time I wrote that you may notice a style change, but that's just because it took me so long to find this fic and starting writing in it again. I don't know if anyone is actually waiting for me to continue it, but I hope that some people care or will care in the future. I would also like to give a special thanks to Its_Chris because my wonderful partner beta-d this story without even knowing the fandom. I owe so much to them because they encouraged me to continue writing and to finish this work! Thanks, babe. Anyway, I hope everyone reading this now, in the future, and in the past can stay safe and enjoy this work. Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

Leo tapped his leg nervously as he stared at the horizon. He was sitting in the middle of the backseat, staring past the driver out to the ever expansive world that they were rapidly speeding towards. His stomach was tied in knots and doing flips every couple of minutes as he remembered why he had flown out to California in the first place. The words that Aphrodite and his father had spoken to him kept clinging to the back of his mind, constantly reminding him that he was going to have to move closer to the two people he had been trying to force away.

He had already secured an apartment and had all of his stuff shipped out to California. He was going to be living in the city just outside of New Rome, just as he had been instructed to. He knew that he shouldn’t have listened to the gods since all they did was meddle and make things worse, but a small part of him just couldn’t let go of the hope nestled in the darkest part of his heart.

The car pulled up to the address that Leo had given them and he quickly got out. He gave them the money that he owned the driver before he grabbed his bag and walked away as quickly as he could. When he had put a good distance between him and the cab, he stopped and looked around to assess his surroundings. He glanced at the street signs and found out where he was, allowing him to walk down the block a small way to find his apartment building. He pulled out the keys that had been shipped to him in the mail and unlocked the gate so that he could actually get into the building.

When he actually got into his apartment, he finally allowed himself to relax. He walked forward, looking at all of his things that had been placed into the apartment. It wasn’t like there was a lot, but for some reason when it was all in boxes that were waiting to be unpacked it looked like he had far too much.

He set to work on unpacking his apartment before he had to get ready to go to Hazel’s graduation. He set out to the bedroom first, since he actually had one in this apartment. 

He got the sheets out of the box and quickly stretched them over the mattress on the ground, making a mental note to buy himself a frame since he had been told by the gods that he would be staying there for a while.

The more he unpacked his things into the much larger apartment, the more he realized that there were a lot of things that he needed to buy if he was actually going to stay in one place for a while. He pulled out his special demigod phone, created by himself, and pulled up a blank notes document. He perched himself on the edge of the counter and began to list down all the things that he needed to get. 

After about ten minutes he pushed his phone into his pocket and went to get his formal clothes so that he could get ready for the graduation and inevitable party afterwards.

Once he had finished getting ready, he looked at himself in the mirror above the sink. He turned sideways, making sure that his chest was flat before he grabbed his phone and headed out. 

When he reached New Rome, a new wave of panic rushed over him like he was getting swept up in a sneaker wave. As he walked further and further into the city, he began to question if he had made the right decision by actually listening to the gods for once in his life. Nearly all of the demigods in the city seemed to recognize him from the war and looked him over warily. All of the eyes clinging to him didn’t help the idea that he had made the wrong decision. 

Just as he was about to turn and leave, he felt two different people sling their arms over his shoulders. He jumped, getting out of their reach and turning around to look at who it was.

“Calm down, it’s just us,” Percy laughed, running a hand through his wild black hair. Jason stood next to him with a small smile, though his brows were knit together in the way that they always did when he was worried.

“Calm down? Everyone here wants to punch me! I thought I was being mugged!” Leo huffed, shaking his head playfully as he plastered on his mask.

“No one here’s allowed to punch you. We already did enough of that when you scared the shit out of us after the war,” Jason replied, ruffling his hair.

“To be honest, I didn’t know I’d come back from being dead,” he replied, sticking his tongue out and swatting at the hand in his curls. 

“Dude,” Percy said, brows furrowed together worriedly.

Leo opened his mouth, trying to think of something to say but to no avail. Luckily, the awkward, worried silence didn’t last for too long since Piper and Annabeth found their boyfriends again and walked over.

“Hey Leo!” Piper said, wrapping her arms around the small Lantino. “I’m glad you could make it! We were kind of worried that you would bale and not show up.”

“Aw, c’mon! Do you really think so low of me?” he asked, placing a hand over his chest to mimic hurt. He resisted the urge to wince in pain since his binder was far too tight to be hitting himself like that. 

“You didn’t come to my birthday party last year. Or Annabeth’s, or Frank’s, or Hazel’s, or Piper’s,” Percy rambled.

“Okay, okay fine! But I was moving when your party was happening,” Leo defended. “And I move so often that I never really have a lot of time off to fly out here, but that’ll change since I live in the city now!”

“Didn’t you just barely move before you moved here?” Annabeth asked, raising one of her eyebrows suspiciously. 

“Yeah, but that place sucked. Bunch of roaches and stuff,” he said, waving her question off.

“Shouldn’t we get going soon?” Jason asked, pulling out his own specialized demigod phone to check the time.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Piper nodded. She threaded her fingers together with Jason’s. Annabeth linked her arm together with Percy’s and led the entire group to where Hazel was graduating. 

Leo sighed, his heart sinking and aching as he wanted that kind of love for himself but knew that he would never get it since he didn’t deserve it. He shoved his hands down into his pockets and walked after them, though he stuck a few feet behind them. He felt his heart flutter and his stomach flip as Frank emerged from the building to meet them.

“Hey guys. Hazel saved a spot for all of us in the back,” he said, pointing to the back row of chairs that were spread out so that people could watch their friends and family graduate. 

“Thanks!” Percy chirped, dragging his girlfriend to the back already. Jason continued after them as Piper did the same to him.

Leo was prepared to silently follow them and then pick the edge chair, but he was stopped by one of the loves of his life. “Hey Leo,” he said, smiling softly and affectionately.

“Hi, Frank,” he replied, awkwardly blushing as he looked up at the muscular man. He cursed himself for being such an awkward bisexual, attracted to both muscles and slender figures. 

“I haven’t seen you in a while. How are you doing?” he asked, seeming genuinely interested.

Leo internally berated himself for allowing himself to think that the other was interested in him when it was so obvious that no one would ever care for him. He kept his overly wide grin on his face and shrugged as he answered, “So-so. Work sucks. Can you believe that you get in trouble for making machines sometimes? Apparently when it breathes fire and can walk it’s ‘not a car.’”

Frank snorted and covered his mouth with his hand as he laughed. Leo felt his smile turn from the fake one he had with his mask to a genuine smile of excitement and giddiness. “Leo, I’ve missed you. You have to come and hang out with us more often,” he grinned. He turned sideways and slung his arm over the other man’s shoulders, bringing him into the large room.

“Naw. You just think you miss me. I’ve been told that spending more than five minutes with me is like eating nails,” he replied. Which was true. He had tried to date Calypso two years ago and the girl had decided that he was far too annoying to be good boyfriend material almost a week after their first real date. 

“Who told you that?” Frank asked, a fierce protectiveness shining through him.

“Ex-girlfriend, but she wasn’t wrong, man. Sometimes I piss me off,” he chuckled, leaning into the arm around his shoulders as Frank held him a bit closer than would normally be considered platonic.

“You only piss me off when you say things like that,” the other replied. “No one should talk down about themselves. Especially someone that’s been through as much as you have.”

“We all went through a lot, not just me,” he forced back a panicked inhale as he remembered what it felt like to die before he was brought back.

“Sure, Leo. Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Frank sighed, releasing his hold on the Lantino when they got further into the large room and people had begun to stare at them. Leo felt his heart sink, wanting to stay in the strong embrace of the other man for as long as he could.

“So how does this thing work? Are we all gonna sit in the back and watch Hazel walk across the stage and then go get shitfaced?” he asked, looking up at the taller demigod. He shoved his hands into his dress-pants pockets, fiddling with bits of loose string and fabric to keep himself occupied.

“Basically,” he nodded. When they got back to where the rest of the Seven were, minus Hazel of course, Frank began to talk to the others. 

Leo sat down in the seat closest to the aisle, looking around at all the people that were sneering at him. Despite knowing the full story and the Latino having saved the world from it’s ultimate demise, the Romans still hated him. He sighed, running a hand through his hair to calm himself down a little bit. If all these people still hated him after everything that had happened, how could he believe that Hazel and Frank could love him?

“Leo? Earth to Leo?” Piper said, waving her hand in front of his face.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m kinda tired from moving, y’know?” he laughed, standing up to take his place in the circle with them and pretend like he was listening to the conversation. 

Piper furrowed her brows and Annabeth pursed her lips, both of them giving him their own version of a worried expression. He managed to blow it off with a dopey grin, something that worked every time without fail. 

Leo hid a yawn behind his hand, watching as all of his friends interacted with each other. Itching thoughts in the back of his mind told him that they would be so much happier without him there making dumb jokes and sniping remarks. He pushed it off, telling himself that he just had to be with them tonight and then he could go back to making sure that they barely had to deal with him. However, while he was thinking about the fact that he was an annoyance, he began to wonder if anyone would notice if he just… stopped responding to the monthly calls and group chats.  _ Probably not, _ he thought.

Leo sat down next to Frank, making his heart flutter madly in his chest. He had to resist the urge to lean into the warmth that was radiating off of the larger man. Despite being a wielder of fire, Leo still found warm things incredibly comforting. Maybe he was just touch-starved from spending the majority of his life alone.

They all sat in silence, clapping politely as each person crossed the stage after getting their name called to receive their diploma. Leo nearly nodded off twice but caught himself as he felt his head slope towards Frank. When Hazel got called up and got her diploma the Seven all stood up and clapped like hooligans. Leo felt a grin split his face and his heart melted into a puddle as pride replaced it. He felt like crying, seeing how far she had come and the amazing thing that she had done already. 

They all waited impatiently for the rest of the students to graduate before all of them rushed to find their friend. Once they did, Frank charged ahead of them and scooped his girlfriend up, whirling her around in a circle and kissing her cheek. 

“Hi,” she giggled, cuddling into him happily. “I graduated!”

“You did!” he nodded, kissing her on the lips. Leo felt his heart squeeze and ache like it had done so many times before. He longed to get that kind of love and affection from them, despite knowing that nothing that good would ever happen to him.

“Good job, Hazel!” Piper said, giving her friend a hug once she and Frank separated.

“Yeah, good on you,” Jason grinned, Percy nodding next to him.

“Now I’m the only one still left in school,” Annabeth huffed playfully.

“That’s just because you can’t get enough of that good education,” Percy teased back, kissing her cheek. 

Leo shifted back and forth awkwardly, his cheeks tinted pink as he looked away from the couples being adorable with each other. He felt a lump form in his throat as he remembered when he had been so hopeful that he would get something like that. He took a breath, forcing down the emotions and grinning widely.

“Nice going!” Leo commented, his voice not really reaching anyone since he was still fighting back his anxieties.

Hazel whirled around when she heard him and squealed. She rushed forward, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as he could, which pushed her bushy cinnamon-curls into his face. He sniffled, pressing his nose into her neck and holding her just as tightly. His arms felt so right wrapped around her waist, and just like when Frank had been holding him, he never wanted her to leave.

However, his wish could not and would not come true as she pulled back and left his arms. She blushed, smoothing down the robe that she was wearing. “It’s really nice to see you, Leo. I’ve missed you.”

“I think we all have,” Frank commented, placing his hand on his girlfriend’s shoulder. Leo felt a little nervous that the other teen would get upset at him for sort-of trying to make a move on his girlfriend.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that. I’m sure it’s nice to not have a third wheel around since you’re all lovey dovey,” he chuckled, ignoring the hurt inside of him.

“Oh yeah! I guess we are all couples now,” Hazel mused, looking between his friends.

“Aren’t you with Calypso, Leo?” Percy asked, looking rather confused.

“Dude, she and I broke up after a week of dating cause she decided she hates all men,” Leo said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. “Besides, even if she didn’t she deserves someone amazing after being stuck on an island because she had the wrong dad.”

“True,” Percy said. He let out a squawking noise as Piper hit him in the stomach, shooting him a death glare.

“Leo, if she doesn’t want you then she doesn’t deserve you. I’m kind of pissed that you died to save her and then she just left,” Hazel huffed, her brows furrowed together and her nose wrinkled cutely. 

“Yeah, I guess,” he replied, laughing softly. 

“Come on. I had exams a week ago and have been saving up my sobriety for today. Let’s go drink,” Annabeth said, dragging her boyfriend in the direction of their favorite bar. Leo smiled softly and rolled his eyes, following behind all of the couples as they walked ahead. He felt his smile turn truly genuine as Hazel and Frank took to either side of him, talking with him.

“So how’s Oklahoma going for you?” Hazel asked, threading her fingers behind her like she was trying to distract her hands.

“Actually, I moved again. It was kind of hard being so close to the place where I grew up before my mom died,” he replied.

“So where are you living now?” she asked curiously. Leo could see the bit of hope spark up in his eyes but he had no idea what it was for.

“I actually live in the city just outside here. I saved up enough money that I could buy an apartment and I have enough credentials that I got myself an actually good job,” he laughed. 

“Your boss doesn’t hate you this time?” Frank asked hopefully. When Leo looked up at him he was surprised to see that the other man had a wide grin on his face that was directed at him. 

“I don’t think so. She’s a really old lady but she’s really nice,” he said.

“Good,” Hazel said confidently. Leo glanced at her and felt almost overwhelmed by the fact that both of the people that he was in love with seemed to be overjoyed and very pleased that Leo was there with them and had moved to somewhere close.

Maybe listening to the gods hadn’t been such a bad idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> I would love to hear what you guys thought of this and if there's anything specific that you want to see me write! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3


	4. Drunken Escapades

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: this chapter contains a scene with explicit sexual content, vaginal intercourse, and slightly dubious consent

Leo glanced down at the water in his hands, watching as the flashing colored lights reflect back at him. He knew that it was a bit lame to be drinking only water when you were at a bar with all of your friends, but he had discovered that mixing alcohol with a fire wielder was a very bad idea. Annabeth and Percy had found the single unoccupied part of the bar and were now vigorously making out with each other under the influence of a dozen or so shots. Piper and Jason were dancing like an old married couple in the exact opposite kind of a situation to the other couple.

The Latino rolled his eyes, downing the rest of his water and placing his chin on top of his now-folded arms. He looked over to Frank and Hazel who had both consumed copious amounts of alcohol at this point. They seemed to notice him looking and moved over to him, each one wrapped one arm around his shoulders. “Hey, why aren’t you having fun?” Hazel asked, pouting heavily as she leaned into him.

“Like, drinking?” he asked, raising a brow.

“Yeah! Everyone else is doing it so there’s no need to feel ashamed!” she chirped, ever the happy drunk.

“Haze, think about what happens when alcohol and fire-” he was cut off when he felt a pair of lips connect to his neck, leaving little pecks up and down. He felt the larger man begin to suck on his neck, definitely leaving a mark that would either show up that morning or in five minutes.

“Frank?” he asked, his voice coming out as a whispery moan. He leaned back into the other, whimpering slightly as he felt himself become very wet.

“Mm?” the taller man replied, his lips never stopping their relentless mission to add as many marks onto his neck as possible.

“Frankie likes you, Leo,” Hazel giggled drunkenly. She tossed back the rest of whatever had been in her drink and scooted forward so that she was in between his legs. “I like you too,” she replied, so close that the latino could smell the alcohol on her breath. He leaned forward, reasoning to himself that he would never get another chance like this again. 

It was just a tender press of the lips, but then it turned a bit more heated. She kissed him once, and then kissed him again, pushing his head back slightly. She wove her fingers through his curls, gently massaging the back of his head as she pushed him into Frank. The feeling of the muscular chest pressed to his back made him let out a small, breathy moan. Hazel pulled away for a moment, pressing their foreheads together as she let out a drunken giggle.

“I think he likes us back, Frankie,” she smiled at the man behind the Latino. 

“We should take him back to our place,” he replied gruffly, nipping at the skin of his neck directly over one of the marks that he had just made.

“What do you say, Leo? You wanna come back to our place? We can celebrate my graduation in a more fun way,” she said, her hand traveling up and down his leg teasingly.

“Yes,” he breathed, no longer thinking straight because he was finally getting the attention of the two people that he adored most in the world. 

Frank didn’t need telling twice. He scooped up the smaller male, carrying him bridal style out of the bar. Leo let out an indignant noise, moving around in the hold so that his legs were wrapped around Frank’s waist. He leaned in, kissing him even more passionately than he had kissed Hazel. 

Kissing the two of them felt very different, which was to be expected since they were two very different people. Hazel was a lot more gentle and slowly seductive, getting him wet and throbbing with need for any kind of pleasure. Frank was a lot more aggressive, biting his lips and moving down to bite as his jaw and earlobes every now and again. 

While the two men kissed each other, Hazel led them to her and Frank’s apartment. She kept giggling like a schoolgirl, as if this was the most exciting and adventurous thing that she had ever done in her entire life.

When they arrived at the apartment, the duo didn’t waste any time in getting Leo onto their bed. Hazel already had her top off as she crawled over the queen sized mattress. Frank had thrown him down onto the bed and was working on trying to get his belt to come off. While her boyfriend was preoccupied, Hazel focused on keeping their guest happy and very turned on. She straddled his hips, rocking down onto him as if he had a cock but was a little disappointed and confused when she didn’t feel a hardened length underneath her like she did with Frank.

“Uh, before we go any further,” Leo said, sitting up on the bed. They were both so blackout drunk that they probably wouldn’t remember anything that had happened during their night in the morning. “I’m trans. So I don’t have a dick.”

“Doesn’t matter. You’re still a man in my eyes,” Frank replied, positioning himself behind the smaller man and once again adding more marks onto his neck. 

“Thank goodness. For a second I thought you didn’t like me,” Hazel giggled. She let her hands travel up and down his stomach and sides, not reaching anywhere near his chest. He groaned, feeling himself become wet all over again. “Where can we touch you, firebug?” she asked, kissing his chin on the other side from where Frank was dedicating himself to becoming a vampire.

“Not my chest and don’t grab my cunt. Clit and my ass are okay,” he replied, nervously moaning again in pleasure.

“Can I fuck you?” Frank asked immediately, his incredibly hard and long length pressing against the smaller man through the sheer cloth that was the Asian-Canadian’s boxers.

“God, yes please,” he moaned, arching into the touch.

“We’re going to undress you, okay. But we’ll all be naked,” Hazel warned. Her incredibly warm hand dipped underneath his pants and pulled out his dress shirt. She began to make quick work of his buttons while Frank groped and squeezed at his ass.

“You’re so handsome Leo. Do you know how hard it is to keep my hands off of you whenever I see you?” Frank asked, rocking into him to give the both of them pleasure.

“I think it’d be pretty easy, seeing as I’m annoying as all Hell,” he replied breathily. His lips were swollen from being kissed and bitten, neither of which he really regretted.

“Don’t say that about yourself,” Hazel scolded as she removed his dress shirt. She tugged at his binder, looking him in the eyes to make sure that it was okay for her to take it off.

He paused for a moment, not sure if his dysphoria would spike if he didn’t have it on or if he would be too distracted to notice it. Eventually, he settled on going the full way with these two since he would probably never get the chance ever again. “Off,” he nodded. 

Frank moved back away from the two for a moment, removing his shirt and boxers, leaving him completely naked. Leo felt himself stare at the hardened cock in between the other man’s legs. He could actually feel the saliva gathering in his mouth as he thought about the monstrous thing inside of him, splitting him open and making him cum six ways from Sunday.

“Isn’t he just gorgeous? Imagine that entire thing nestled inside of you, touching everything in just the right way,” Hazel cooed into his ear, surprisingly dirty for the time that she was born and raised in. He knew that she had become more accustomed to the modern day world, but he had never thought she would become that dirty vulgar.

“Oh God, please,” Leo whined, spreading his legs. He nearly cursed aloud as he remembered that he still had his pants on and made quick work of removing them and throwing them off the side of the bed. 

Hazel giggled and tugged her shirt off, revealing a pretty, lacey bra. Frank was once again behind Leo, which seemed to be his favorite position. He rubbed his cock on the latino’s folds, relishing in the heated wetness that he could already feel. “In me,” he nearly ordered, sinking down on just the tip of the huge cock. 

He moaned, throwing his head back in the pleasure of just being breeched. Slowly, the other man pressed into him. Inch by inch, Leo could feel his entire body being overcome with pleasure. When Frank was fully seated in him he leaned forward, licking Hazel’s chest and pressing the bottom of her bra to make her breasts burst out of it. He grinned wickedly and took a single nipple into his mouth.

He felt Frank pull out a small bit and then thrust back in, making him moan slightly. He ran his tongue over the nipple in his mouth, relishing as it became a hard nub. He sucked on it, now bouncing his hips to pull Frank out of him just enough before spearing himself on the huge member.

“You wanna lick something else?” Hazel asked, breathless and moaning slightly.

“Fuck yes. Let me taste you,” Leo nodded adamantly. The woman made quick work of both her bra and her panties, exposing her own folds. Leo leaned forward so that he was bracing himself on his elbows and knees. Frank began to pull out of him and then thrust back in lightly, making sure not to hurt the Latino. His hands gripped Leo’s hips, leaving red marks whenever he moved them away for a moment.

Leo leaned forward to lick at the folds. He pressed his tongue flat against Hazel’s cunt, before licking a stripe up and making sure to press a little harder when he reached her clit. She moaned, arching her back in pleasure. One of her hands moved down, entwining with his locks once again. She rocked up into his tongue as he did it a second time, letting out lengthier and lengthier moans the more he ate her out.

He stuck his tongue into her, moaning himself at the taste of her slick as it rolled over his tongue. He could get addicted to this, if given the chance to try it enough times. He whined in pleasure as he felt the coil inside of him begin to tighten as he quickly approached his orgasm.

“Oh, Leo,” Hazel moaned, arching her back pleasurably as she cummed around his tongue, releasing even more of her delicious slick for him to lap up.

“What a good boy for her. Such an amazing man, making her cum so well. You feel so good around me, Leo,” Frank panted, his once patterned thrusts become more erratic and spastic. 

“Fuck, Frank! I’m going to cum!” he whined. Suddenly, he was flipped around as he was being thrust into, watching the man above him. Frank leaned down, kissing his lips as he cummed inside of the Latino, moaning. Leo groaned as well, cumming around the huge cock buried deep inside of him.

When the three of them came down from their respective highs, Hazel began to snore lightly.

“Sorry I cummed in you. I should have asked. Are you okay?” Frank asked, struggling to keep his own eyes open.

“I’m fine. I liked that a lot,” he replied, yawning widely. None of them had the energy to get up and clean each other off and instead just fell asleep in a giant sticky mess of limbs.

As Leo fell asleep, he couldn’t ignore the overly strong feeling of rightness while he was cuddled between the two of them. He felt something that he had never felt before after his mother died and his dysphoria had reared its ugly head. He felt like he finally belonged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> I would love to hear what you guys thought of this and if there's anything specific that you want to see me write! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3


	5. Longing After

When Leo awoke the next morning, the first emotion that he felt was confusion. He was abnormally warm, which in itself was strange for him since he was a fire wielder. He was also incredibly sweaty and sticky, which was something that only ever happened when he was so horny that he had to touch himself or he’d go insane.

He lay there for a moment in complete silence before he realized what had happened. He glanced over, seeing both of the people that he loved still sound asleep. He wiggled down, getting out of their grips and sliding out of the bed. He gathered up his clothing, putting it back on despite how disgusting that was even for him. He left their apartment as quickly and quietly as he could, rushing to get as far away from them as possible.

His mind was racing as he thought of all the possible ways that they would have reacted to finding him in their bed. He could see the anger and hatred on Frank’s face. He could see the confusion and embarrassment on Hazel’s face. He could hear the angry, hateful words that would spew out at him just like every time he got close to someone.

He sniffled a small bit as his heart ached, reminding him of just how alone he was. Most people, especially demigods, had friends that they could fall back on and call family. Leo was utterly and completely sure that the rest of the Seven thought of him as an inconvenience. He was like the younger sibling that they had to hang out with but no one wanted to.

He wiped at his eyes, biting his already kiss-bruised lips to muffle the sobs that were tearing at his throat to try and escape. He was not going to cry in front of all the Romans that were already awake at five in the morning.

Leo rushed away from New Rome as quickly as he could, getting back to his apartment before he fully let himself break down. He shut the door behind him, locking it as an extra precaution before he leaned against the door. He pulled his legs up to his chest, wrapping one of his arms around them to keep them close to him. He used his other hand to viciously wipe at his eyes as he sobbed. The tears just kept coming, finally letting the loneliness that was strangling his entire life pour out through his eyes. As he sobbed, he felt all of the emotions that he had been stamping down for as long as he remembered bubble back up and boil over the edge of the pot

When he finally stopped, he had been crying for so long that his throat hurt and ached. He sniffled, wiping the snot running out of his nose on his dress pants despite how disgusting he knew that was. He didn’t move for what felt like an entire eon. 

He finally pulled himself out of his stupor and stood up from the tiny pile he had pushed himself into. He walked to the bathroom, stripping off his clothes and getting into the shower once it had gotten hot enough. He was too distraught from the thoughts that were rushing through his head to feel dysphoric. 

He had finally gotten to be together with the two people he had always wanted to be with, but for some reason it felt wrong and off. Like something had switched inside of him the moment that he had woken up the next morning. He didn’t regret taking his chance and spending the night with them, but at the same time he did.

What if they remembered? 

The thought kept crossing his mind, and every time he cringed and felt like crying all over again. He was so distracted by his thoughts that he didn’t think as he threw all of his clothing into the washing machine, ignoring the fact that his binder had been in the mess of cloth. 

Each time his brain tried to bring him back to the fact that he was not biologically a male, he could hear Frank and Hazel’s words ringing in his ears. He had come out to them the night before and even if it had been in a drunken stupor, they had told him that he was still male despite not having a cock or balls.

He settled down in front of his laptop with his favorite movie cued up. He had a bowl of cereal in his lap, the only thing that he had in his apartment at the moment. He ate in complete silence, not even laughing at the parts of the movie that he normally found hysterical. 

Everything felt off and wrong, similar to the way he felt when he was dysphoric but different in the way that he actually felt right inside of his body for once. He knew that he was still male and would always be male, but it was like some sort of benevolent force had taken away the awful feeling that he had to deal with day after day. 

He sighed and glanced at the clock, seeing that it was already close to two in the afternoon. He got up and grabbed his binder from where it had just finished air drying in front of a fan. He slipped it on and then checked his packer to make sure that it was on right before he left his apartment to go shopping for the things that he needed.

* * *

Throughout the entire two weeks after Hazel’s graduation, he hadn’t had any dysphoria but the wrong feeling kept persisting. Nothing seemed to cheer him up, not even making things improved his mood like it normally did. He passed it off as his depression acting up, just so that he wouldn’t have to pay attention to the problem. 

His apartment finally looked like there was someone really living in it. He had a couch and two chairs in the living room along with a coffee table. He hadn’t bothered with an entertainment center because he would have to make a television for it and with how down he had been feeling he just didn’t think that he was up for the task. In his bedroom, he now had a vast array of about ten outfits. He also had a real bed with real blankets and pillows (he bought the particular set that he did because it reminded him too much of Frank and Hazel to not). He had also bought himself a wide variety of cookware and food. 

He was currently curled up in his bed, the giant comforter that he bought wrapped around him as he watched some dumb Disney movie that he had found on YouTube. He felt his stomach turn once before his mouth began to water and he felt bile rise up in the back of his throat. He threw the comforter off of himself and sprinted to the bathroom. He kneeled in front of the toilet, puking into it until he was sure that he had nothing left inside of his stomach.

“Gross,” he hissed once he had finished. He flushed the nasty sight down the toilet and then rinsed his mouth and brushed his teeth. He returned to his bed, passing it off as some bug that someone from work had given him. 

* * *

When another two weeks passed by with him now puking routinely at seven o’clock every morning, he began to worry. He leaned against the bathtub, one hand on his lap and the other running through his hair. He racked his brain, thinking of all the other symptoms that he might have had that would allow him to determine what he had caught.

He was tired all the time, something that he had passed as depression. He was puking every morning despite eating very light foods the night before. He was also more hungry than he had been since he was a growing teenager. His back ached constantly, despite never having done that before with the manual labor that he did. His mood also seemed to be all over the place, another thing that he had attributed to the depressive bout that he was going through.

“Shit, shit, shit,” he whispered when the only thing that came to mind was something that couldn’t happen. There was no reason biologically that it couldn’t happen, but if it did it would make his life even more of a living hell than it already was. He grabbed his phone, scrolling through it until he found the app that he used to track his cycles. His eyes glanced over the app, trying to ignore the notifications about texts from Frank and Hazel and the rest of the Seven that he was getting.

He let out a sob of panic as he saw that he had skipped his cycle for that month. He also noticed that the night that he had spent with his loves was right when he would have been most fertile. He let out a panicked breath. He dropped his phone down onto the tile of his bathroom. He turned, just barely making it to the toilet before he puked again.

When he finished puking he sat back on his heels, digging his nails into his arms to try and ground himself with a small dose of pain. It wasn’t healthy and he knew that, but he had to find some way to make the realization less of a kick in the balls.

“Calm down, Leo. You might not be pregnant. Maybe it’s Cancer or something,” he replied, running a hand through his hair. The idea that Cancer was better than pregnancy almost made him want to laugh. He stood up, tucking his phone into his pocket. He was lucky that he had been given the day off after his boss had seen how awful he felt. 

He took a deep breath, getting himself ready to go out and buy something that he had hoped he would never have to buy for himself. He had his hands inside of his hoodie pocket the entire time that he walked, fidgeting with bits of metal to keep himself from freaking out and panicking at any moment. He slipped into the convenience store, going to the aisle that he loathed. He glared at the condoms, as if it was their fault that he could possibly be knocked up.

He looked over all of the tests and chose the one that stood out to him the most, which also happened to be the most colorful one. He grabbed a box off of the shelf and quickly made his way to the cashier. He kept his head down and walked fast, as if he was a teenager that was trying not to be noticed in fear of getting in trouble instead of a twenty-something buying a pregnancy test. He placed the box down onto the conveyor belt and pulled out his wallet, wanting to be done and over with all of this as quickly as he could.

“Pregnancy test, huh?” the cashier asked. She was an elderly lady and instead of pitying him or looking confused, she just smiled. “I hope that you and your partner get the results your looking for,” she said.

“Thanks,” he cleared his throat awkwardly. He took the bag from her once she had taken his money. He left the store as quickly as he could, keeping his head down the entire time. 

When he got back to his apartment, his hands were shaking so hard he could barely tear through the cardboard. While he was elated that he was passing enough that the woman didn’t immediately assume that the test was for him, the nagging thought in the back of his mind reminded him that if he was pregnant then he wouldn’t be passing for very long. 

He shook his head, praying to anyone that would listen to him that the tests would come back negative. He peed on both of the tests that came inside of the box and then set a timer on his phone. He paced around his house, panicking and freaking out worse than he had ever done in his entire life. It was incredibly ridiculous to be this scared of something when he had been through literal war-ending events and death itself. 

Despite reminding himself of those facts, he still jumped when the timer went off. He silenced it and raced to the bathroom, his heart beating hard enough to break through his ribcage in his chest.

He flipped over the tests, keeping his eyes shut for a few minutes before he got the courage to open them and then immediately let out a sob when he saw what the results were.

He was pregnant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> I would love to hear what you guys thought of this and if there's anything specific that you want to see me write! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3


	6. Doctor's Appointment

Leo felt panic bubble up in his gut before it pressed out of his stomach and through his mouth. He dropped down to his knees so hard that they bruised before he puked into the toilet in front of him. He held onto the edges of the porcelain bowl as tightly as he could, as if it would run away from him if he let go. 

He puked until there was nothing in his stomach. When he had finished he pulled back and wiped his mouth with a piece of toilet paper. He shakily took a breath, leaning against the wall of his bathroom. The cold wall felt like heaven against his heated skin, trying to cool him down from his intense temperature.

He didn’t notice that he was crying until the tears began to become cold, running down his neck and becoming absorbed into the fabric of his shirt. His breath was ragged and wracked with sobs, making it hard for him to get the oxygen that he actually needed.

Dysphoria overcame him unlike it had in months, making him feel incredibly out of place in his own body. He growled softly through the tears, pulling at his shirt before he grabbed both of his arms and dug his nails into the tanned flesh.

This couldn’t be happening. He had only ever had sex once. He couldn’t be pregnant. That was so completely female that he literally couldn’t think of anything else that happened to women that didn’t happen to men. He sobbed, slamming his head back against the wall as he began to crave physical pain to make the mental pain ease up a small bit.

He knew that it was wrong and that it was a horrible coping mechanism, but everything became far too much and he no longer had any idea of what he should do. 

He sat on his bathroom floor, sobbing and dragging his nails along his skin for almost half an hour. When the tears stopped coming he hauled himself up from the floor and stared at himself in the mirror for a few moments. 

He looked like a complete mess, which wasn’t something out of the ordinary for him. His hair was a mess, more so than normal. He had tear streaks down his face and his eyes were a hazy red from all the crying that he had done. His arms were slowly oozing blood and would begin to itch if he didn’t wash them out soon. 

He reached to the soap, spreading some of it over the cuts on his arms before he rinsed it off. He then reached over, flushing the toilet which had been something he had neglected to do in his panicked breakdown. He then brushed his teeth and gurgled some mouthwash, getting the disgusting taste of bile out of his mouth. 

He numbly walked through his house, sitting down on his couch. He didn’t see anything, but he did notice that the bright summer light outside seemed a bit too chipper for the way that he was feeling. He took a deep breath, pushing back the tears that once again rose up in his eyes. He passed it off as pregnancy hormones already affecting him and not the mental breakdown that it really was.

The thought of him actually being affected by pregnancy hormones made him feel sick on a biological level, as if he had just asked his body to do something impossible. He sat there, not saying anything and hardly moving for what felt like an eternity. His mind whirled and ran and moved the entire time, as if taking all of the energy that he would normally put into his body just to cope with the fact that he had gotten a positive pregnancy test.

“Maybe I’m not actually pregnant,” he whispered, rubbing his face with both of his hands. “Maybe they were both wrong,” he nearly prayed. 

He curled up on the couch for a bit, allowing himself to finally calm down and take some time to really process things. He took a deep breath and sat up after a moment, finally ready to start handling his situation like an adult. He grabbed his laptop and began to research OB/GYN’s in his area that would take him.

When he had his appointment set up, he allowed his phone to drop down onto the couch next to him. It was still chirping with texts that he was receiving from the group chat with the rest of the Seven. No one had tried to contact him directly yet, which was to be expected. He often went on long breaks from contacting anyone when he got too depressed or too busy to have time to be fakely social.

It did make him want to cry when he thought about the fact that the two loves of his life were already so used to pretending that he just didn’t exist even after their night that they had spent together. He sighed fondly, allowing the feeling of rightness to slip over him before the loneliness began to grow inside his heart and overwhelm all other emotions.

He groaned, burying his face in his hands in frustration. Why did he have to listen to the gods? He had gotten so good at ignoring them and all of their frustrating instructions. Then he had thrown it all the way and moved somewhere new, so close to people that he had tried to distance himself from. Then he had gone and thrown caution to the wind to have one night that had ended in him being knocked up.

Hazel had once told him that he couldn’t cling to the past, wishing that he could go back and change it. He realized that he was dwelling a bit too much on things that had already happened. He sighed, pursing his lips and taking this as it was. There was nothing that he could do about what had already passed, only what he could do for the future.

* * *

When the day of Leo’s appointment rolled around he felt like a livewire. His skin buzzed like every one of his pores had opened up, allowing his cells to be exposed to any of the elements in the area. He couldn’t sit still, which was closer to normal. He fidgeted around, tucking his legs under him before he put them back down and began to wiggle around a small bit. 

He leaned back on the hard plastic chairs inside of the waiting room, groaning a small bit. If this was the waiting room for pregnant women, then why were the chairs so uncomfortable? Leo’s back had been killing him for the last two weeks and the chairs were not helping anything.

He glanced around the waiting room, looking at all of the extremely heteronormative people that were expecting children or coming to check to make sure that they were pregnant. Most of the moms were very feminine with long hair and heavy makeup on their faces. 

He sat there, nervously bouncing his leg and fidgeting around for another ten minutes before a nurse came out and called his name. He sprang up from his seat and walked over to her, wiping his hands on his jeans to rid them of the sweat that had developed there.

“Don’t be so nervous, sweetheart,” the elderly woman said, her wise eyes crinkling around the edges. She reminded him a bit of what Annabeth would look like if she was in her eighties. 

“It’s kind of hard not to be nervous,” he replied, giving her an awkward smile.

“I understand. I was terrified when I found out that I was pregnant with my first,” she chuckled, waving her hand through the air as she guided him back to where the scale and blood pressure cuffs were. “Take off your shoes and take anything heavy out of your pockets please,” she said, turning the machine on and resetting it from what it had been before. 

Leo did as he was told, slipping off his converse and then placing everything in his pockets in the chair that he’d have to sit in later. He stepped onto the scale, watching as the numbers flashed and showed off that he had already gained a couple of pounds and he was only about a month into his pregnancy.

“We don’t have many records of you from earlier in your life, so I’m not sure if you gained any weight or not,” she said before she wrote down his weight onto the sheet on her clipboard. Leo nodded and put his shoes back on before he gathered up all of his belongings. He sat down on the chair and placed his arm out, allowing her to take his blood pressure.

Once they had finished with all of the normal check up things, the elderly nurse brought him back to the room where the doctor would actually be able to check him out. Leo hoped up onto the table, making the paper crinkle underneath him. 

As he waited, he pulled out his phone and began to scroll through all of the texts that the rest of the Seven had sent to the group chat that had all of them in it. Leo rarely ever actually sent anything to it, despite being the one to create it when he had had one too many edibles for the night. They were talking about the normal things, mostly just sharing stories of stupid things that their significant others had done and complaining about their workloads.

Leo sighed, wishing that he could be part of that or that they would just acknowledge that maybe something was wrong with him whenever he never talked to them. But that would never happen since he had made a mask of such perfect fakeness that no one would ever be able to see past it long enough to realize that something was wrong.

He was torn out of his thoughts by the door to the hospital side of the room opened. He glanced up and placed his phone back in his pocket, giving her a polite smile. “Hi, I’m Dr. Amara,” she said, holding her hand out and letting him shake it. She was plain, but she looked kind enough. She had warm brown eyes with smile lines around then and long hair that was put up in a bun to be out of the way. She wore the normal doctor scrubs and had almost no jewelry except for a small silver band around her ring finger.

“Leo Valdez. But you probably already knew that,” he chuckled awkwardly. Luckily he could actually refer to himself by the name that he prefered since he had stolen a bunch of money as a teenager and gotten in changed, which was his last straw before he was sent to the Wilderness School.

“Well, it’s still nice to meet you, Mr. Valdez,” she said. “That is what you prefer to be called, isn’t it?” she asked worriedly.

“Yes. I’m trans female to male. So I have all the girl parts but the guy brain,” he joked.

“Well, thank you for telling me that. Now, what are you here for?” she asked, tucking a loose strand of hair back where it belonged.

“Uh. I took a couple home pregnancy tests and they all came back positive so I came to check and make sure,” he replied, clearing his throat nervously. He grabbed one of his stim toys out of his toolbelt and began to play with it, keeping himself calm enough to think through the doctor’s questions. 

“Those tests are actually surprisingly accurate. Why did you initially think that you were pregnant?” she asked, tapping her pen on her clipboard while she sat down in the wheeled chair underneath the moveable computer monitor. 

“Well, I was throwing up almost every morning. And despite puking all the time I was more hungry than when I was a teenager. I was also exhausted, despite sleeping way more than I normally do. My back also hurts way worse than it should seeing as I just got a new job and I’m not allowed to do anything with heavy lifting just yet,” he explained.

She nodded and listened closely to him, writing notes down onto the sheet in front of her as she did so. After he finished she waited a moment, reading over everything she had written before she looked up to address him properly. “All of those symptoms sound very close to pregnancy. When was the last time that you had unprotected intercourse, or have you?”

“Uh,” he mumbled, his cheeks turning bright red. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that this was his doctor and he didn’t have to feel embarrassed because it wasn’t her place to judge him. “I had unprotected sex with a guy about a month ago.”

“Completely unprotected?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes. I’ve never been on birth control and he was too wasted to put on a condom. They also found out that I was trans as we were getting into bed,” Leo said, rubbing the back of his neck with one of his hands.

“And he ejaculated inside of you?” she asked. When he nodded she took that as her chance to continue. “I would suggest getting tested for any STD’s or STI’s,” she suggested.

Leo nodded, still staring at his hands. He highly doubted that either Frank or Hazel had any kind of disease, but it wouldn’t hurt to get tested anyway. 

“Would you mind taking another pregnancy test so that we can confirm your pregnancy before we continue with the appointment?” Dr. Amara stood up and opened the cabinets over the sink in the corner. She pulled out a box containing two more pregnancy tests, from a brand that Leo had thought was way too expensive when he was checking himself.

“I can do that,” he nodded, swallowing harshly.

The doctor gave him a kind smile, “I’ll leave you alone for ten or so minutes so that you can take that test and get the results back. There’s a bathroom just down the hall.” She made sure that he understood before she slipped out of the door on the other side of the examination room and left back to where the other doctors and nurses were.

Leo stared down at the box of pregnancy tests in his hand for a moment before he hoped off of the table. He drifted down the hall to the bathroom and then peed on the sticks as quickly as he could. He capped over the ends where the sensors actually were and stuffed them back into the boxes as he walked back to the examination room.

Ten minutes later Dr. Amara knocked on her door and walked in again. “What do the tests say?” she asked politely as she sat back down on her stool.

“I haven’t looked at them quite yet,” he replied sheepishly. He pulled them out of the box and flipped them over, revealing two more positive pregnancy tests. 

He handed them over to her when she politely held her hand out. “Congratulations,” she chuckled. “I know that this can be scary, but I assure you that everything will turn out okay in the end. Now, I do need to know how far you are into your transition to know how it will affect your pregnancy,” she said.

Leo cringed. “I’m not very far into my transition at all. I wear a binder and a packer. My name has been legally changed and I’ve been on T for barely three months. I haven’t gotten any surgeries because I wanted to have enough money to do them all as close to each other as possible,” he explained, rubbing his hands along his jeans before he fished out a paperclip from his pocket. He began to bend it into interesting shapes, heating up his hand just enough to melt the weak mettle and make it more malleable.

“Well, that should be good for the baby at least. Now we need to discuss your options,” she sighed, placing her clipboard down. 

“Options?” he asked, folding the paperclip in his fingers into a gem.

“Yes. You can go through with the pregnancy or you can terminate it,” she replied. Her normally warm brown eyes dimmed and saddened at the mention of abortion. 

Leo felt a cold breeze go down his back that reminded him too much of the possessing ghosts that had taken over him his first time in New Rome. He remembered what his mother had taught him when he finally began to realize that death existed.  _ Never take an innocent life,  _ mijo _ , because they can’t fight back or make a case for themselves. _

He pressed a hand to his stomach, his mind whirling with thoughts. He felt his breath catch in his throat and his heartbeat began to increase. Everything was becoming far too much. He was pregnant and if he terminated his pregnancy then he’d have to come to terms that he had gone against one of the core values that he had held his entire life. But if he went through with the pregnancy then he would have to raise a child and deal with the massive amount of dysphoria that would come with being in such a feminine position. 

“Mr. Valdez?” Dr. Amara asked after a moment. “I understand that this must be a lot for you to take in. How about I send you home with some pamphlets and the number for an abortion clinic as well as this one? That way you can decide after some much needed sleep. Though I would suggest that you talk to the baby’s other father before you make a decision since it is his child as well.”

“Okay,” was all that he managed to get out of his mouth. She smiled reassuringly at him and got the couple of pamphlets in the room as well as a paper that she handed to him. “Until you make your decision, I would suggest ditching the binder and wearing a sports bra. It will be more comfortable for you when your pectorals begin to swell and become more sensitive,” she said.

Leo felt more reassured by the fact that she called his breasts by a more masculine term. He nodded and stuck his paperclip creation and stim toy back into his toolbelt. He stood up and shook her hand again before he slipped out of the office. 

He walked down to where the lab was located. He checked himself in and then waited in the little lobby that they had outside. He ran a hand through his hair once more before he pulled out his phone and checked the messages that he had gotten from the Seven in the groupchat. When his name was called he walked in and sat in the chair that the nurse pointed to. He held out his left arm and turned away, not speaking to the nurse that was assisting him. He winced at the tiny prick and then moved his arm away after it was bandaged. 

Leo’s head felt like it was stuffed full of so much cotton that he couldn’t even hear what the nurse was saying to him as he just nodded and then left. 

He spent the entire ride back to his apartment thinking about the pros and cons of both of the options that he had. He would never allow his baby to be raised by another person if he were to keep them since they could very possibly inherit both his and Frank’s gifts.

He stumbled into his apartment, tossing his things down onto the table in his dining area. He got to his bedroom and took off his shirt and binder before he collapsed down onto his bed. He sniffled a small bit, wiping away the tears that had begun to leave tracks down his cheeks. He curled up in the smallest ball that he could despite the aching pain in his spine. He let out a gentle sob, just allowing himself to wallow in his sadness for a while before he finally fell asleep.

* * *

_ “Of course, I just can’t catch a break,” he growled as he woke up in a very familiar location. He was back in the marble gazebo that he had been in when he spoke to his father and two of the other gods. He sighed, turning around in a full circle to see if anyone was coming. When he didn’t see any gods that wanted to tell him more cyptic messages about how to fuck himself over he sat down on the marble steps.  _

_ He placed his arm on his knee, then his chin on his hand. He just watched the wind sway the tall green grass that was spattered with a multitude of flowers that Leo couldn’t name. A tinkling noise distracted him from staring out at the neverending field. He looked up to see that the gazebo had changed, and now he was sitting on the porch of a wood cabin.  _

_ From the outside, it looked extremely cozy and more than homely. It had several windchimes that varied in size hung from the porch roof. They swayed in the breeze, knocking into each other and creating a melodic harmony. There was a rocking chair to the right side of the porch and on the left side there was a large stack of wood meant for a fire based on the fact that there was no bark.  _

_ “Papa!” a young girl cried out, racing up the steps of the cabin. She was so small that she had to take them one at a time, and her knees reached her chest every time she stepped up. She had a head full of cinnamon curly hair that kept falling down into her eyes since it was more like a mane than anything else. Her skin held a warm chocolatey tone that reminded Leo of Hazel in a way that made his heart swell with affection. _

_ “Hey baby!” Frank laughed, scooping her up and whirling her in a circle. He looked older, more mature. The change wasn’t as drastic as the one in Italy all those years had been, but it was definitely there. He pressed a kiss to the little girl’s cheek, making her squeal and launch herself backward. He kept a hand on her waist but dumped her upside down and doubled over. He began to blow raspberries on her now exposed stomach, causing her to scream with giggles. _

_ “Papa! Stop!” she shouted, her little hands moving up to try and shove her father away from her. _

_ “Never,” he replied, bringing them both up and tossing her into the air. When he caught her, he placed her on his hip and turned to kiss her cheek. She kept giggling as she wrapped her little hands around his neck, clinging to him tightly. “Where’s Mama?” _

_ “She’s with Bubba,” the little girl replied, pointing her finger out into the neverending field of grass. _

_ “Well then I guess you get some time with just me, huh?” he asked, kissing her forehead before he went inside. _

_ “What the Hell am I watching?” Leo mumbled to himself. He was well aware that he was dreaming, and that no one seemed to notice him. He stood up from the steps that he had been sitting on and walked to the half of the porch that had a swing and sat down there. He folded his hands on top of his stomach, thinking about how he was currently carrying Frank’s baby. _

_ A moment later, an older looking Hazel emerged from the field and walked up the steps of the porch slowly. Next to her was a boy that looked almost exactly like Frank but with wild and curly brown locks. They resembled Leo’s quite a bit, which made his heart flutter widely in his chest. _

_ Was this dream a view of the future? Or one of the paths that he could take? If so, where was he in this dream? Had he given the boy away and continued running? _

_ The thought of abandoning his baby made him begin to cry softly. He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t let his baby die and he couldn’t give him away even if it was to better parents then he could ever be. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> I would love to hear what you guys thought of this and if there's anything specific that you want to see me write! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3


	7. Ultrasound

Leo startled awake the next morning. He whined and wrapped his arms around his abdomen, wincing in pain as his stomach growled loudly. He swung his legs over the side of the bed. As he stood up, nausea overtook the hunger that he had been feeling only moments ago. He rushed to the sink, just barely making it before he began to dry heave and puke.

When he finished, he opened the cabinet overhead and got a class. He rinsed the small bit of bile down the drain and then filled the glass with water. He moved back to the dining area where he had left the pamphlets from his last appointment. He sat down with one of his legs tucked up underneath him and sipped on the water to hopefully settle his stomach as he grabbed the closest pamphlet to him.

This one happened to be about abortion. Leo read it despite having already made his decision to keep the baby and go through the pregnancy. He might as well get educated with the other options just in case something happened.

When he had finished reading all of the pamphlets that had been provided to him, he tossed the ones about abortion and adoption. He called the clinic again and scheduled another appointment to come in four weeks from now for his dating ultrasound when he was eight weeks along. At least with the definite conception date he knew when he was going to be due. 

“Four weeks pregnant, huh?” Leo breathed. “Hope I didn’t fuck shit up too much in that time,” he pressed a hand to his flat stomach and the other one moved to rub against his forehead. 

A small smile graced his lips as he realized, no matter what happened with his friend group and the rest of the Seven, he now had a part of Frank that would be with him for at least eighteen years and thirty six weeks. The smile slipped off of his face as he began to think about what his friends would think of his pregnancy. 

“I just won’t tell them,” he reasoned, shrugging with an awkward grimace. “I can’t do that to Frank and Hazel. If I told them then it could ruin their relationship. But on the other hand, it’s not fair to keep the fact that Frank fathered a kid from him. Would he even allow me to keep the baby?”

Despite the fact that Leo had only recently discovered he was expecting and that he was going to keep the baby, the thought of being separated from them sent a cold shiver up his spine. “Maybe it’d just be best if I kept me and all of my weird life stuff to myself. They’re all so busy with their own lives that they don’t need me,” he placed his head into his hands and let out a couple of haggard breaths. 

“Alright, less pity party more working,” he stood up and quickly walked to his kitchen. He had barely anything in his cupboards still, but he had enough to make himself something to eat. Once he had the bowl of cereal in his hands he went back to the dining room and sat down with his laptop. He opened a blank document and a google tab. 

His stomach was still touchy from this morning’s bout of sickness, but eating while he was doing something seemed to distract himself away from that enough that he could get the whole bowl of cereal down. 

Leo searched through thousands of articles to find information that all lined up with what little tidbits he had been given in the pamphlets. He read about how many calories pregnant women needed to consume to keep themselves and the baby healthy. He read about what foods should and shouldn’t be eaten during pregnancy. He already knew to avoid alcohol and smoking, but there were several things that could still manage to surprise him. 

“No fish or spicy foods? Seriously?” he groaned as he ran a hand through his curly locks. He wasn’t too fond of fish, but toning down the amount of spice in his diet was going to be a pain.

The longer that he continued the research the more he realized that there were nearly a thousand Mommy Blogs out there that wanted to tell you exactly how you should go through your pregnancy, going so far as to leave step-by-step instructions for each week.

Leo grimaced at a couple of the websites and those blogs, backing out of them as quickly as he could. He also had a distinct distaste for the websites that referred to the baby as female despite there being a fifty-fifty chance for either sex.

When he had finally culminated enough notes and fact-checked all of his research, he closed out of the google tab. He got a notebook from another part of his apartment and wrote down a complete plan of the meals that he was going to have for the month until the next appointment. Normally he skipped breakfast and lunch, but now that he was responsible for another human life he couldn’t do that anymore. The next thing he did was jot down a list of foods that he was going to get when he went shopping that weekend. It consisted mostly of fruits and vegetables, though there were a couple of things that sounded good that he was going to get for himself.

Leo glared at his computer as he realized that he should probably tell his boss sooner rather than later since he was working in a machine shop. He sucked in a tight breath as he dragged the laptop closer and opened an email draft. The demigod spent the next twenty minutes typing and retyping the email to try and make the words sound both professional and make sense at the same time. He finally managed to pound out something that sounded vaguely human and got his point across. 

He sent it and then quickly closed his laptop without a second thought. By now it was around noon, so he lifted himself up and got something for lunch. This certainly wasn’t going to be easy, but he’d be able to handle it in the end. He had to, because it wasn’t just him that he was looking out for anymore.

* * *

Leo shifted uncomfortably in the seats as he waited for his name to be called. He still disliked coming to the office, but he had had four weeks to come to terms with his pregnancy now and felt like he was handling it a lot better than he had when he first came here. He spent most of his time on his phone, ignoring the few worried texts that he was getting from his friends. Normally when he went for longer than six weeks he would come back with a massive meme dump just so that they knew he was alive and he wouldn’t be burdening them further.

“Valdez?” the nurse called from where she was standing at the door that led further into the clinic.

Leo stood up and tucked his phone back into his pocket. He crossed the small space between the back wall and where the nurse was standing. Once she had closed the door to the waiting room she piped up, “We’re just going to do a weigh-in so that we can monitor the weight you’ve gained since the last time you came in.” She led him over to the scale once more. Leo did as he had done last time and stepped onto it, watching as the number read almost ten pounds higher than it had the first time.

“My, my,” she chuckled. “You were underweight when you came in for the first time so that isn’t too concerning,” she soothed as she saw his worried expression. She sat him down in the chair next to the scale and took his blood pressure and heart rate.

Leo then found himself in another examination room, this one had the ultrasound machine pressed against the wall next to the bed. He swallowed harshly to try and keep his nerves back. Despite his attempts at soothing his anxiety, he nearly jumped out of his skin when Dr. Amara knocked the door and entered.

“Mr. Valdez, great to see you again,” she shook his hand and then sat down on her stool. “So I assume that because we’re seeing you again you’ve decided to go through with the pregnancy?”

“I have,” he nodded, swallowing. “I also took your advice on the sports bras. I haven’t been taking my T shots either. I heard that can cause miscarriage and other side effects.”

“I know that must have been hard for you, and I have to say that it’s very admirable for you to give up so much for your child,” she gave him a reassuring smile. 

Leo felt a bit of pride and happiness bubble up in his chest. He had been doubting his decision since he made it, and knowing that he had made the right call caused everything to click back together like it had during that night with Hazel and Frank. For once, the positive emotions managed to push out his negative ones long enough for him to forget his anxieties about the ultrasound. 

They checked through a couple of things, most of which involved the results of his bloodwork. They had confirmed him to be pregnant, and he was also clear of any STDs or STIs. Leo made sure to double check that all of the research he had done on his own was good and nothing that he was doing was actually hurting his baby. Dr. Amara confirmed a few things for him and gave him a list of foods that he should avoid during pregnancy, most of which he was already aware of.

“Now that we have that out of the way, would you like to see your baby? You’re far enough along that we should be able to see quite a bit and hear the heartbeat,” she chuckled.

“Uh, yeah,” Leo nodded. He wasn’t sure he really wanted to do this as it made everything feel so much more real. He was actually pregnant, and now he had to face the terrifying reality that something might’ve happened to the baby back before he knew about them and wasn’t taking care of himself. Leo could barely even take care of himself now, so the idea of having another human he had to handle was rather terrifying. 

He took a deep breath to calm himself down, gently reminding himself that he had another thirty two or so weeks to figure this out, and he would. He had fought the literal earth, and returned back from the dead. He could figure out how to be a dad. He had his mom as an example, anyway.

Leo turned and laid down on the examination table, pulling up his shirt so that it rested just underneath the sports bra that he was wearing. Dr. Amara tutted slightly as she saw the healing bruises around his ribcage, but she didn’t say anything quite yet. Leo also tucked his pants down a small bit so that his entire abdomen and the upper part of his pelvis was showing.

“This is going to be cold,” the doctor said in warning as she spread some gel out onto her gloved hands. She smeared it over his exposed skin, mostly focusing on the area around his uterus. 

Leo startled a bit at the sudden temperature difference. He inhaled a sharp breath and then let it out as a laugh. “I didn’t expect it to be that cold,” he rubbed one of his arms to put the hairs back in place as they had raised up in goosebumps.

“No one does,” she chuckled back. She grabbed the wand from the ultrasound machine and pressed it gently to his stomach. The room was filled with a swelling sound that got louder and then died out extraordinarily quickly. “Good, your bladder is full. That will let us be able to see everything better.”

Leo held his breath for a few minutes as she went quiet and began to move the wand around so that she could continue looking for things. “Good news, the pregnancy isn’t ectopic! You can see here that this is your uterus, and inside we have a little black area that’s the sac where the baby will grow,” she explained, tracing her finger over some of the black and white static on the screen. 

“Wow,” he said. It was a little hard to wrap around the idea that she was showing him a picture of what was inside of him. 

“Here’s the best part,” she beamed as she finally found the baby. “This is your baby,” she pointed to a little alien shape on the screen. The baby was the same color as the rest of the uterus, so it was good that the black sac was at least partially surrounding them.

“That’s my baby?” Leo whispered.

Dr. Amara made a small surprised noise in the back of her throat, “Babies, actually,” she chuckled as she moved the ultrasound wand over and revealed another baby.

The dream that he had a few months ago came rushing back to him and he inhaled a sharp breath. Those kids that he saw were his, he knew it. They had to be. He brought a hand to cover his mouth as he felt tears well up in his eyes. “I’m having twins?” he whispered, unable to stop the few tears that were slipping down his face.

“Is that bad news?” the doctor asked worriedly as she stopped the movements and grabbed a tissue for him.

“No,” Leo sniffled, wiping away his tears. He gulped down a few sobs and tried to calm himself down the rest of the way. “Sorry for crying, I was just surprised.”

“In my line of work, I get a lot of tears. I’m just glad that these ones were happy tears,” she smiled reassuringly. She finished the check up by showing him the rump to crown length, which gave him a due date despite the fact that they knew exactly when the child had been conceived. 

She printed out one of those rolls of photos that expecting couples often used to announce their pregnancies at the end of the sonogram. Leo wiped the gel off of his stomach and sat up, pushing his shirt back down over his stomach as he listened to the doctor. “Everything looks good, you can even see the arms beginning to form,” she handed him the roll of photos.

“Wow, you can,” he grinned, his heart beating erratically in his chest. He was looking at the humans growing inside of him. He had helped create those babies with the love of his life. 

“You seem to be doing everything right, so the only tips that I have are keep doing what you’re doing,” she chuckled as she looked over his charts. “You might start showing before our next appointment since you’re expecting twins instead of just a singular baby. Oh, something that I would suggest, however, is scheduling some therapy appointments that could help you with dysphoria that could occur because of the pregnancy.”

Leo nodded and got off of the examination table. He walked back out to the waiting room with the roll of pictures in his hand. The Latino scheduled his next couple of appointments with the receptionist and then went back to his apartment, staring down at the pictures of his babies the entire time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> I would love to hear what you guys thought of this and if there's anything specific that you want to see me write! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3


	8. Baby Bumps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is kind of a shorter chapter, but there's only so much I can write about a pregnancy when there are no other people to interact with him, haha. I also didn't want to lump this in with another chapter because it seemed kind of pertinent to Leo's growth as a character so that just left this chapter really short. I hope you can all enjoy it regardless! A small note: I used google translate for all of the Spanish words in this, so if I messed something up or if there's a better translation I could use, please let me know so I can fix it! I also wanted to say a big thank you to everyone that's been leaving me comments and kudos. I was kind of disappointed when I posted this fic a while ago because no one seemed interested in this ship or the main idea of the story, but it was such a huge passion-project of mine that I really wanted to share it with others. Knowing that there are people out there that love this fic as much as I do really warms my heart, so thank you. Hope you can all stay safe in this hectic time, and please enjoy. Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

By the time that his tenth week was finally nearing, his morning sickness had finally stopped. He had discovered that tums worked amazingly well when it came to settling down his upset stomach. Leo had just woken up from a long night of sleep. It seemed that his symptoms were a trade off. If he didn’t want to be puking every morning, then he had to deal with falling asleep at eight every night and waking up about twelve hours later.

He rolled over and stretched, popping several spots in his back that had been killing him. He rubbed his eye with one hand and got up from the bed to go and shower. He did it quicker than he normally did because his dysphoria tended to flare up more than it had before during showers. His chest had swollen significantly already and was so tender that he could barely even wear a bra most days, let alone his binder. 

“Hey, it’s a weekend,” Leo smiled to himself as he used a bit of his power to wash himself off. “I don’t have to go to work today,” he puffed out his chest a bit and then walked to his bedroom.

He tossed on a pair of comfortable boxers and some sweatpants. He picked up two sports bras, glaring at them for a moment before he chose a looser one and tenderly got it over his chest without rubbing his overly sensitive nipples as much as he could. When he grabbed his shirt, he noticed that it didn’t fit quite as well as it did.

He blinked a few times as he tried to pull the fabric of the shirt down so that it would at least cover the sliver of skin that was peaking out just above his hips. He turned his gaze down at his stomach and released the sides of his shirt. He ran his hands down his front from underneath his chest to the top of his thighs. His stomach had once been flat, but now there was a very definite bump to it. 

If you didn’t know what you were looking for, he would just appear to be bloated or have the beginnings of a bear belly going on. The skin laid a bit differently than it did over fat, but it was so small that it was barely noticeable and could be well hidden underneath a jacket.

“Shit, man,” Leo whispered as he sank down into a sitting position, rubbing the bump with his thumb. “I guess you’re both in there, huh? Damn, I’m going to be a dad. You’d think I would have realized that with all the work I’ve been doing,” he chuckled. It felt kind of stupid to be talking to his own stomach, but he knew that the twins would eventually be able to hear his voice. It’s not like he had anyone else to talk to, anyway.

He placed his hand protectively over his stomach and smiled softly, “You keep growing big and strong for your Papa, okay?” he murmured as his thumb rubbed over the skin. “I’m already so proud of you two.”

He stayed on the floor of his bedroom for just a little longer before he got up and made his bed. He drifted to the kitchen to get himself something to eat while rubbing his hand over the bump he was now sporting. He had expected showing to bring about his dysphoria, but his therapist had brought up a very good point during the last appointment that he had attended.

_ “Tell me some of your fears about this pregnancy,” Dr. Burant, a trans man himself, said as he leaned back in his chair. The psychologist had a thick brown beard that covered the lower half off his face and went nicely with the trimmed and slicked back brown hair on the top of his head. He wore untucked, short sleeved button ups and khaki pants with a pair of hiking boots every time Leo had seen him. _

_ He thought about it for a second, staring down at his hands. “I guess that I’m worried the dysphoria will become too much and I’ll do something I’ll regret.” _

_ “You’re scared that your dysphoria will cause you to hurt the babies?” he asked to clarify. When Leo nodded and took in a deep breath and thought about the situation for a moment. “Is this dysphoria purely about the pregnancy?” _

_ “I-yeah,” he nodded, swallowing nervously.  _

_ Dr. Burant nodded and jotted down a quick note. “Do you get dysphoria because you associate being pregnant with being female?” he asked. _

_ “Of course I do. Being pregnant is the most girly thing that you could do,” he said, his own self-hatred flaring up for a moment. _

_ “What about all of the Non-Binary and genderfluid folk that choose to go through with a pregnancy so that they can get kids. Does that make them female just because they decided that they wanted to have kids?” he asked. _

_ “I guess not,” he shook his head. _

_ “Then why does accidentally getting pregnant make you female? Surely if being pregnant made you female, then them choosing to get pregnant would make them female,” he reasoned. _

_ “I guess it doesn’t,” Leo conceded after a moment of wrapping his mind around the logic the therapist was using. “But society still thinks that I’m female, and the people that look at me will assume I’m a chick.” _

_ “Well then correct them. There are probably a lot of cis guys out there that get mistaken for women, so it’s not just a you thing. Think of your gender as something that people can see, but might be wrong about. It’s kind of like a pin on your backpack. Someone could see it and think that it means something else, but they don’t mean anything by it when they compliment you for something that you don’t have. And if anyone harrasses you about your gender or refuses to use your pronouns, that’s a hate crime,” Dr. Burant chuckled and winked jokingly. _

“I can still be your papa even if I’m the one carrying you,  _ Pequeños, _ ” Leo hummed softly as he finished getting himself something for breakfast. He had opted to go with one of the greasy yet mouth water breakfast sandwiches that he had been craving for a week before he finally caved and just bought them. 

He wrapped himself up in the bedroom and stared at the television that he had mounted on the wall across from his chair and couch. Despite his apprehension at making more demigod proof technology, he had gotten so bored and twitchy while at work that it was the only thing he could do with his hands. He wasn’t allowed to work as long since his boss found out that he was pregnant, and on top of that expecting twins. While she didn’t really understand the transgender aspect of his life, she was still polite and used his proper pronouns. She was also very particular about how much he worked and what he worked on. She refused to let him work in the shop and so now he was stuck talking with people on the phone and scheduling appointments. Normally people took shifts doing that job, but now he was stuck on it until after his babies were born. 

“At least it keeps you safe,  _ Pequeños _ ,” he touched his stomach again. When he finished with his breakfast, he took a nap on the couch in between watching some stupid documentaries that were playing through his Netflix watch list.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> I would love to hear what you guys thought of this and if there's anything specific that you want to see me write! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3


	9. Seventh of July

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost forgot to upload today, haha. I was just thinking about how wonderful all of you are and how your comments really encourage me to write and continue on with my art. Thank you all so much! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

Leo startled awake sometime around ten when there was a sharp and insistent knock at the door. He was groggy and discombobulated from his nap so he didn’t think to check his phone or grab something to cover himself and his bump as he got up and stalked towards the door. “H’lo?” he asked as he opened it with one hand, rubbing his eye with the other.

“Leo?” Percy breathed. He took a couple steps forward and hugged him tightly. “Sorry, I know that was probably overstepping and I didn’t ask permission but I’m really glad to see that you’re alive.”

“You are?” he asked, his brows furrowing together in confusion.

“Of course. Can I, uh, can I come in?”

“Yeah, sure,” he moved to the side and let the other half-blood inside. His brain was still reeling on the fact that Percy had somehow found his house and was now standing inside of it. He was so distracted by the idea that Percy and some of the other Seven had actually been worried about him that he completely forgot about his appearance and the myriad of things on his fridge that would give the pregnancy away.

“We really started to worry when you didn’t show up to Jason’s birthday party. You’re his best friend. And even if you don’t show up to the rest of ours, you always make it out to Jason’s,” Percy explained as he walked through the living room area to the dining room. He leaned against the table and looked around the apartment, taking everything in.

“The first already passed?” Leo asked, his heart sinking. While it probably wouldn’t have been a good idea for him to go to New Rome and face Hazel and Frank while expecting Frank’s kids, he still wished that he could have at least sent Jason an obnoxious video of him singing happy birthday. 

“It’s the seventh of July,” Percy nodded. “Happy birthday, by the way.”

“Shit,” Leo swore, rubbing his forehead with one hand. “I guess I’ve just been a little occupied with… stuff,” his cheeks turned slightly pink and he began to self-consciously pull at his shirt again. 

“Hey Leo, you know I’m a demi-boy, right?” Percy asked.

“Yeah, you’re the son of Poseidon,” the other half-blood blinked a few times.

Percy smiled slightly and laughed. He and Leo had always been similar in the way that they shared the same sense of stupid-joke and sass oriented humor. “No, I meant like the gender. I use both he/him and they/them pronouns.”

“Um, okay,” he nodded as he folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall to the kitchen behind him. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Percy shifted awkwardly. “Don’t drag it out of me, man,” he groaned, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. “I guess I’m telling you so that you know it’s okay to come out to me.”

Leo felt himself freeze and tears welled up in his eyes. “I guess I’m really not passing anymore. I thought I’d have at least a couple more months…”

“Please don’t cry, I’m not good with tears,” the other Greek panicked. “I didn’t find out because you’re not passing, I found out because I went to every machine shop close to New Rome and found out which one you worked at. Your boss is really excited for you to have your kids. I didn’t really get it at first, but I can see the sonogram pictures on your fridge. My mom had like a dozen of those when she was pregnant with Estelle,” he explained quickly.

Leo took a couple deep breaths and blinked a few times to fight back the tears threatening to run down his face. “Ah, yeah,” he wiped his cheek to rid it of the stray tear that had escaped. “I always forget that you’re an older brother.”

“A lot of people tend to,” he sighed with a small shrug. “Is that why you haven’t been talking to us? Because you didn’t want us to know that you were pregnant?”

“And trans,” he nodded.

“None of us would judge you for being trans,” Percy said. “Just because you weren’t born with testosterone running through your veins and a cock between your legs the size of a greek statue doesn’t make you any less of a man.”

“But does being pregnant?” he whispered.

Percy snorted. “Course not. Plenty of the gods carry the kids, and most of them present themselves as men. Having kids is just a thing that people do. I don’t think you have to use she/her pronouns to be the one to carry.”

“You sound like my therapist,” Leo snorted.

Percy gently tapped the outside of Leo’s foot with his shoe. “It’s ‘cause it’s true.” He paused for a moment before he spoke up again, pushing himself off the table to head into the kitchen, “So who’s the other dad? Someone we know or just a quick fling?”

“I…” Leo bit his lip. “It’s kind of complicated? I’m worried that if I tell anyone the father I’ll cause a relationship to break up.”

“You didn’t sleep with Annabeth, did you?” Percy asked, pressing his hand to his chest as his eyes widened.

Leo snorted, covering his mouth as he laughed harder than he had in a long, long time. “No, man. She’s way too scary for me.”

“She’d be too scary for me too if I hadn’t seen the way that she chews her hair when she’s nervous before a test. Did you know that when she gets stressed about school, she’ll just start reciting random parts of her textbook?” he chuckled.

Leo laughed again, the small smile now staying on his face as he followed Percy into the kitchen. He picked up the roll of photos from his fridge, looking over them. “Twins? Jeez, man.”

“It’s not like I got to choose how many kids my body decided to have,” Leo shrugged, rubbing his arm self-consciously.

“I know, that’s just a lot of responsibility. My family could barely handle Estelle and my mom worked from home,” Percy replied. “Are you sure that you’re going to be able to handle two babies without the other dad?”

“I’m going to have to. I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to tell the dad yet,” he sighed.

Percy made a small clicking noise. “Go and get dressed, I’m going to take you out to lunch for your birthday.”

“You don’t have to do that man, especially after I’ve bailed out on all of your guys’ birthdays,” Leo shook his head.

“No. You’re pregnant, we all thought that you were dead, again, and I miss hanging out with you. Seriously, go get dressed,” Percy insisted.

The son of Hephaestus felt a twinge of guilt upon remembering what he had done to his friends after the Battle with Gaea. He nodded and pushed himself off of the counter as he walked through his apartment to his room. He quickly changed into a pair of jeans that barely fit thanks to his newly developed baby bump. He found one of his looser shirts, that stretched over his stomach but actually covered it.

He joined Percy again and they left his apartment entirely. “So what are you in the mood for?” the older of the two asked once Leo had finished locking his apartment door.

“I’ve been eating really healthy since I found out about the twins, but I’m totally craving some greasy fries and a burger,” he chuckled as he caught up with the other demigod.

“Annabeth never lets me eat anything like that anymore,” he laughed. “Not that you can find too much of it in New Rome. They’re super healthy because of the Legion.”

“I think that was also a Roman thing back in history too,” Leo commented. Dysphoria flared up inside of him as soon as they emerged from his apartment building and into the crowded city that he lived in. Normally he thrived on that kind of electric chaos that was constantly present in a city this size, but he felt self-conscious and uncomfortable with it now.

Percy seemed to notice after a couple blocks of complete silence. “Hey man, I promise that if you’re not looking for something wrong then you can’t tell,” he smiled. “And it wouldn’t matter even if people could tell. They’d be jerks regardless.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he shrugged again. They were quiet for a little bit longer before Leo mustered up the courage to ask, “How has Jason been? Piper too.”

He thought for a moment before responding. “They’ve been doing pretty well. Jason’s still doing some stuff with the Legion, most of it’s just training some of the younger recruits specialized moves. I can tell that he misses you. While he and I are friends, we’re just too different to have what the two of you have together.”

“I didn’t know that I meant that much to him. I thought that with all of the fake memories that I have from Hera and the lack of memories that he has he’d have a different best friend or something,” Leo said, running a hand through his curls.

“Are you kidding me? You mean so much to all of us!” Percy chuckled, punching the other demigod’s arm lightly. “I know that things get awkward with the whole Seventh Wheel thing, but we do care about you. Just because you’re not in a relationship with any of us doesn’t mean that we don’t care about you. If I’ve learned anything in my time going to Camp, it’s that prophecies are stupid and they will destroy you if you let them.”

“I guess you have to care about me if you did all that work just to find me,” Leo flushed slightly. He thought about all of the times that Frank and Hazel had stayed on the monthly calls just to talk to him, and how Annabeth had helped him when he was going to school. Then there was Piper. Piper was probably Leo’s best friend, and he had been awful to her. She was always there for him when they were in school together, and never questioned him about any of his odd behavior. “Damn, I miss Piper. I should reach out to her again.”

“Especially if she’s the dad,” Percy laughed as he darted forward a few feet ahead of Leo in a joking manner.

Leo snorted and took a couple of steps forward so he was next to Percy again. “You know very well that she’s not the father. I’m not attracted to her like that.”

“Well it was a guess,” Percy shrugged. They chatted for a bit longer about work and school as they made their way into the restaurant and ordered. They were just sitting down with their food when Percy brought the subject up again, “But seriously, who’s the other father?”

“You just don’t let shit go, do you?” Leo groaned.

“Not when parentage is such a big deal for us. Please promise me that you didn’t sleep with a god or goddess.”

Leo quickly shook his head. The idea of doing that made his stomach roll. He had seen enough of the gods when they were at the height or their arrogance and conceitedness. There was no way that he could let one of them charm their way into his pants enough for him to get knocked up, let alone knocked up with twins. “I wouldn’t dare.”

“Good,” Percy relaxed a bit and took a big bite out of his burger. Leo followed suit, which resulted in the majority of the rest of their discussion happening around mouthfuls of food. “So who is it then? Some mortal or a half blood from New Rome?”

“First of all, get any thoughts of mythical creatures out of your head. I didn’t bang a nature spirit or a satyr,” Leo said, pointing accusingly at Percy with a french fry.

“I didn’t say that you did!” he defended, holding up his hands in a surrendering position. 

The son of Hephaestus smiled softly before he poked the container his fries came in with one hand. “If I tell you who the other dad is, you have to promise not to tell anyone. I mean it, anyone. That includes Annabeth.”

“Okay, I promise. I’m not going to swear, you know I don’t do shit like that anymore,” Percy mumbled.

“I wouldn’t make you after what happened with Calypso,” Leo shook his head. He took a couple deep breaths to try and calm his nerves down. He dropped the other half of his burger down on the wrapper, allowing one hand to go down to his stomach protectively. “When I came back to New Rome for Hazel’s graduation, everyone got wasted except for me because I don’t drink. Hazel and Frank started hitting on me and I went home with them. Frank’s the father.”

Percy’s eyes went so wide that they looked owlish. “A-are you sure?”

“They’re the only people that I’ve ever had sex with, and Frank is definetely the only one in that relationship with inseminating capabilities,” he replied with a self-conscious shrug.

“Jesus. Wait, they were drunk and you weren’t?” Percy asked, his brows furrowing together. “Isn’t that a little non-consensual?”

“I know,” Leo cupped his face with both of his hands. “I was reluctant to do it at first, and I should have just gone with that. The thing is, I’ve been in love with the both of them since the beginning of our quest and I just caved and went home with them. That was part of the reason that I just disappeared afterward despite living in the same state as you guys now.”

The other half-blood was silent for a moment. “I’m not going to grill you for something that happened in your past, especially when it was something as up in the air as drunk sex. But seriously man, think with the head on your shoulders and not the one between your legs.”

Leo felt a bit more confident the more that Percy referred to him and his body as male, just like he had always wanted. It gave that voice in the back of his mind less of a reason to be saying that no one would accept his trans identity when they knew and even ebbed away a bit of his dysphoria. 

They ate in silence for a while longer before Percy asked, “So when are you going to tell him?”

“When? I think the question is more of an ‘if’,” Leo said as he wrinkled his nose. “I don’t know what Frank thinks of me, and I don’t know how he would handle learning I’m carrying his kids.”

“He has to like you at least a little bit,” Percy reasoned. “I mean, the sex was good, right? It didn’t seem like he was trying to kill you with his dick?”

Leo flushed. He couldn’t help the small pang of arousal that he got thinking about the night he had had with Hazel and Frank. “No, it didn’t seem like hate sex. Not that I’ve ever had anything like that.”

“Well then he has to at least like you a little bit. People tend to just have amplified emotions when they’re wasted, not completely different personalities,” Percy replied with a small shrug. “And you should tell them. It’s kind of fucked up to keep from him that he’s a dad.”

“I can’t lose these babies, Percy,” Leo whispered. He had stopped eating when the conversation had taken this turn and he was now staring down at his empty sandwich wrapper and mostly empty container of fries. He can feel tears welling in the corners of his eyes for a moment before they tip down his cheeks, and he can feel nothing other than melancholy fear and trepidation. 

Percy was quiet for a moment before he slid off of the chair and threw away their garbage. He handed Leo the rest of his fries and gently led him out of the restaurant. Leo sniffled a bit and wiped at his face to try and stop the tears streaming down his cheeks. They walked for a little bit, back towards the apartments. 

“I don’t think that Frank would take the babies from you, Leo,” Percy said softly. “That just doesn’t seem like something he would do.”

“Everyone still thinks of me as some irresponsible kid that let myself get possessed by ghosts and start a war. How could Frank and Hazel let me raise their kids?” Leo asked, his voice breaking again.

“These kids are being carried by you, Leo. They’re yours as well as Frank’s,” the son of Poseidon said. “You have rights to them just as much as Frank does.”

Leo was quiet for a bit before he let out a sarcastic laugh, “You know, at the wilderness school, I knew a kid whose parents got in a really nasty custody battle. They spent years going to court and having their schedule changed as visitation and custody rights were changed. They were so miserable that when their mom lost any all and visitation rights, they ran away and ended up getting sent to the wilderness school. I don’t want my kids to have to do something like that.”

“There’s no saying that they would. Half-bloods don’t tend to get messed up in mortal courts and stuff like that,” Percy spoke a bit more freely as no one was around to hear them. “I think that you and Frank could come to an agreement with each other about the kids. I just think that Frank deserves to know that he has kids in the world, even if you don’t plan on letting him have anything to do with them.”

“I’m not sure that Frank would want anything to do with kids that came from me,” Leo wrinkled his nose in distaste again.

“I’m sure he would,” Percy snorted as he playfully knocked their shoulders together. “Seriously, you should talk to the rest of the Seven. My mom had my step-dad, me, and a bunch of friends to help her through her pregnancy and it was still really hard on her. You should have some kind of a support network to help you through this.”

Leo raised his eyebrow as he turned and looked at the other demigod, “Are you volunteering to help me through this pregnancy, Jackson?”

“In a very non-intimate way, yes,” he chuckled. “I’ll send you some advice from my mom and help you put together a nursery.”

“Good. I’m going to need help cleaning out the second bedroom. It was originally meant to be my workroom, but the twins had other ideas,” he chuckled.

When they reached Leo’s apartment, Percy pulled him in for a brief hug. “Talk to us more often. We worry about you. If talking to Piper and Jason is the next step towards telling Frank about your pregnancy, then do it. Text me if you need anything,” he waved as he turned and quickly headed back down the street.

Leo let out a breath that he hadn’t known he had been holding. He traveled back up to his apartment and threw away the now empty carton of fries. He had a lot of thinking to do, and perhaps some talking with his best friends. But first, he and the twins needed a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> I would love to hear what you guys thought of this and if there's anything specific that you want to see me write! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that you've enjoyed this fic! It's been a project of mine for what feels like years now. I know that this fic and this subject aren't very popular with a lot of people, but I deeply enjoy them both. I feel like this fic is a little self-indulgent when it comes to the ships and some of the plot points, but I guess that's what writing is all about at the end of the day. I loved writing this fic and finally seeing everything play out like I had imagined it all in my mind. I've said this before but I do feel like it bears repeating. The completion of this story would never have happened had it not been for the wonderful, encouraging words of my partner Its_Chris. Please take the time to go check out some of their stuff and give them a kind word if anything catches your eye. Thank you all so much for reading and supporting, whether you're reading this before the posting of the last chapter, at the posting of the last chapter, or when everything has been wrapped up for a while. Thank you. Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3


End file.
